Quite a sweet message in the front of the book I have just started, The Historical Works of Simeon of Durham. As it was published before 1923 in the United States it is classed as being in the public domain and Nabu Press, who published this, kindly say how I am free to copy and distribute this book as I see fit. They are going around scanning copies of old library books that may otherwise disappear which I think is an incredibly noble venture as otherwise this valuable historic work e.g. from 1855 may be lost and I don't see a queue of people seeking to produce a modern translation.
   In Bethany news Alison thought she was after some food when she was pointing at the mini BabyBels on the worktop. Unwrapping and peeling the wax off this round processed soft cheese Alison passed it to Bethany only for her to place it in the cup from a cup and ball set before returning it to Alison who happily obliged her and fired the cheese across the kitchen.

Again Bethany has been poorly today, but at least the conjunctivitis has cleared up. Currently she is a bit perkier as it approaches bed time and after sleeping for a large part of the day there is a good chance she may not go straight to sleep. Not wanting to sound full of self pity but I'm feeling rather ropey myself, frustrating as it does not seem too long ago when I brushed off my last cold. Before Bethany started nurery I seldom got colds and flu but it appears that she is picking these bugs up and generously spreading them around.
   As I was up earlier than usual to collect Bethany from nursery yesterday I thought it best to have a lie down when Alison got back from her course around tea time before going to work. Not wanting to have too long I merely closed my eyes for an hour on the sofa where despite meaning well Alison's shouts of "Leave daddy alone, he's sleeping" managed to delay my snooze more than Bethany waving toys in front of me.
   Concern for Bethany meant a visit to the GP where we waited an hour for a gap to be told basically to carry on with what we were doing. Whilst reassuring that there was no evident sign of infection it did feel like a waste of time although interestingly he did state that the latest NICE guidelines reccommend not using paracetomol or ibuprofen for lowering temperature. These are still advised if the baby is unwell apparently and the theory is that too many drugs may hamper building immunity. When I questioned him if there was a temperature when you should administer e.g. paracetomol he did agree that he would use it to lower temperature if it went above 40`C. This slightly mixed message is a little reduntant as when Bethany has been running a temperature she often shows other symptons that cause her discomfort as well.

Bethany continues to get up to mischief with her latest climbing trick to climb into her pushchair from which she stands and waves and we have our hearts in our mouths before rescuing her from the predicament she was oblivious to. This is her new job - finding hazards around the home that we had not thought of and quickly trying them out whilst our back is turned. I thought I'd be clever and take the brake off the pushchair thinking this would prevent her from climbing into it as it rolled away from her as she grabbed it from the front. This lasted until she pushed it up against a wall and then tried to climb again and would have been successful if we had not intervened.
   It is still hard to tell whether she understands what we say and whether the words that she is trying to form are what we think they are. In the case of the former she does seem to respond well to questions e.g. this afternoon when I asked her to pick something off the floor and pass it to me she did but this may well have been down to me pointing at the object as well. As for speaking whilst most of it is still gabbling he odd word or phrase does pop out and they appear to be more connected - no more "Derek" and "Barbara" - and often in response to a question. A few months back my mam asked her "Where's Grandad?" to which she held up her hands and seemed to say "I don't know". This was probably coincidence but it is now more pronounced and it sounds like she is trying to repeat what we say. Yesterday she picked up a sweet and I asked her "What's that? A chocolate button" and it did sound like she repeated "Chocolate".
   It looks like it is about time that I seriously try to mind my language.

Bethany has developed an eye infection with the result that her head was one big crusty ball this morning as beside her eyes being stuck shut her nose was also covered in dried snot. She was obviously upset before we bathed her eyes so that she could open them but once cleaned up she seemed alright within herself with regular cleaning of the eyes and ointment application.
   Five years I've nearly had my car for and I'm still not comfortable about which way round the control levers on the steering wheel are. No doubt out of sheer bloody mindedness cars from the Far East have the wiper stick and light control the other way round from Western cars with the result that when I try to be polite and flash people for letting me through at night I squirt water on my windscreen. I was reminded of this this evening when the same predicament faced me when a car let me through the gap in the road narrowed by parked cars either side. I paused to consider whether to trigger the left or right stick by which time it was too late and I vainly held up my hand in an acknowledgment of thanks - futile as the driver would not have seen my gesture in the dark. At least I remember which side my petrol cap is on.

Bethany, quite naturally, prefers to go outside to play or simply enjoys a trip in the car and has started encouraging us to take her out. Subtle hints like trying to put her shoes on were simply interpreted as playing but she gets excited when you grab her coat and will stand by the front door waiting for us to get ready. As further encouragement she has started to pick up my trainers and bring them to me, or if I am already putting one on she will be handing me the other to hurry me along.
   I have been watching the TV series Civilisation as presented by Kenneth Clark from 1969 which BBC HD are broadcasting not that we have a HD TV but I'm enjoying the series nonetheless. The last episode I viewed was "Protest and Reform" which dealt with the Reformation time period which was rather apt as it marries with the book I am reading, "Q" by the Luther Blissett group, set in the same period. The part that struck me was when Kenneth Clark was discussing the number of paintings of Martin Luther done by Cranach the Elder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder which also included one of him in disguise as Junker Jorg . Now I might be missing the point somewhat, but it struck me as curious to have your portrait done whilst incognito as it somewhat undermines the whole enterprise. Not that growing a beard makes Luther the man of a thousand faces anyway and if he was trying to hide it may well have been from Lucas Cranach in case he tried to paint his portrait again.

Walking back from town the other day I let Bethany out of the pushchair on the road going to South Park, keeping hold of her hand in case she decided to make a beeline for the river. Once in the park I let her have more of a free reign as we followed the path round to the exit that leads to our house which thrilled her enormously but was no guarantee of her following the same path as myself. After a bit of dallying and wanting to double back I hit upon the idea of encouraging her to follow me be proffering her grapes from the bunch I had just purchased in the market. Sure enough, arms outstretched she toddled after me, trying to grab her prize which I let her have after a few metres and then repeated the process. Feeling rather pleased with myself for getting her to go the way I wanted I soon realised that she was happy enough as I'd let her have a run around and she'd had some grapes without even asking for them.
    We've booked a week away in August with Bethany in mind as well as we will go to a holiday park near Great Yarmouth. The promised kids clubs will no doubt feature people dressed as an assortment of woodland animals, so hopefully we get the right venue and don't end up at a furries fetish conference. Whilst I am used to these places charging extra to hire a cot and highchair (fairplay to Travelodge the other week who provided a cot at no extra charge) but £10 for bed linen is taking the piss. Is everybody following the Ryanair model now and slapping surcharges on everythingg they can think of. The cot and highchair is bad enough - at the moment you don't pay more if you actually want a bed or a chair in your room but where will it stop. Currently the other popular surcharge is for checking in at a reasonable time rather than late afternoon but what next: An extra £10 if you want a key for the toilet in the room; £5 for every enquiry made at reception. The holiday is still not that expensive but when they provide a list of optional extras for things that you would think were relatively basic requirements then you can't help but feel that they are being greedy.
    I am sure that there are some fussy people who only like to sleep in their own Egyptian cotton sheets that they carry everywhere with them but I think that this is probably a niche market. Besides those customers would probably not be booking into a standard family caravan in a holiday park.

Well after a blazing start it is as I feared and all gone a bit quiet on the design a rhyme front. Also my nature means that I get a bit involved and after completing my first poem for money I still can't disassociate myself from it and continue to wonder how it was received. After not receiving any confirmation from the customer (and why should they?: how many time do people get in touch with somebody who sold them something) I am still left wondering as to what they thought of it. I can only presume that they are not displeased as they have not complained or asked for any changes but for my own peace of mind it would be nice to see how one of my efforts has been received by the recipient. As all previous verses have been for friends and family it is hard to gauge how non biased eyes / ears receive them so to receive any feedback would provide some justification for continuing with this project. For that reason I have added a guestbook to my website and e-mailed the customer in the hope that I may encourage them to leave some comments.
   It must be so nice to be confident.

Flabbergasted at the speed of actually receiving an order for one of my poems on my new website http://www.designarhyme.co.uk I have not only processed the order, received payment, composed the poem and sent it to the customer. Hopefully they find it to their liking but after not being sure how long it would take to write a verse for a stranger it is reassuring to know that with enough information I could manage a 16 line poem in an afternoon. The pessimist in me sees this as a promising start to be followed by a drought or at least when the advertising coupon I received from Google runs out.
  
                                                           *****************

   Bethany has been under the weather yet again with teeth being the major suspect for a change. She knows how to ask for things mind - usually by going to the food cupboard and crying for refreshment or laughing by the bath when upstairs. She is sleeping quite solidly but does move around a lot to the extent that on looking in on her it is not unusual to find her at the opposite end of the cot with her head buried amongst her soft toys.

After what seems like a dog's age of faffing around I have finally published my website, although it may not actually be live for a few days. Nonetheless if all goes to plan (which always seems unlikely) then I should be composing personalised poems in next to no time at http://www.designarhyme.co.uk/
 It's rather late now for any more rambling as I've spent all day messing around with what was supposed to take 5 minutes - one of the clues that tells me this may not run as smoothly as hoped. Ho hum.